Album of the year - 2016

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Nomination 17 - Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith - A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke

Passage - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLxVisyR0o4

Nomination 18 - John Scofield - Country For Old Men

Jolene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5GTSDmyfU4

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Brief Interlude 2 - There is a lot of this sort of thing around : Pascal Niggenkemper - from Talking Trash - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi8k2rDSqAA. See also in differing ways Fire! Orchestra, Merzbow with Sun Ra, Peter Evans, Ingrid Laubrock etc. While not closed minded, I'm not wholly convinced. What, I'd ask, are the boundaries of gimmickry?

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....and the final two selections:

Nomination 19 - Krakauer's Ancestral Groove - Checkpoint

Elijah Walks In - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef3vH_ffAN0

Nomination 20 - Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol & Whatsnext? - Resolution

The Turkish 2nd Line - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-XqjmhiVdE

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Additional Comments

It was difficult in the end, not least because I hadn't realised just how many new releases there are in a year. Overall I would give my work here a 7 or 8 out of 10. Inevitably, a high number of selections had a distinctive world music element which reflects my own musical leanings. That 20th nomination has some modern R n B leanings in parts and vied with several others for its placing. There was a feeling that I wanted to include the "Abyssinian Mass" by Wynton Marsalis but it does spin out across genres even more than a few of the 20 I have included and it had already been mentioned. I fully accept that a fair number of records which I have not included in my list were very significant during the year.

Apart from the Marsalis disc, these include DeJohnette, Coltrane and Garrison's "In Movement" - a record that came close to obtaining the 20th slot - Henry Threadgill Ensemble Double Up's "Old Locks and Irregular Verbs", Greg Abate and Phil Woods's "Kindred Spirits Live", Logan Richardson's "Shift", Kris Davis's "Duopoly" and the resurrected radio recordings of Sarah Vaughan "Live at Rosy's" and Larry Young "In Paris". A special mention too at this stage for Tim Garland, Jason Adasiewicz and Keefe Jackson, Pete Hurt, Phronesis etc but, the Ward and Argue aside, there didn't seem to be much point in duplication. I think Erik Freidlander's "Oscalypso" was a 2015 release but that is a minor point.

Elsewhere, Julian Lage's "Arclight" caught the spirit of Chet Atkins, the Anat Fort Trio had an appealing new take on "Birdwatching", Jeff Parker of the American post-rock band "Tortoise" persuaded some but not necessarily me that he represented "The New Breed", there was a rather coy release from Zoe Rahman, "Dreamland", and the more exhausted parts of Keith Jarrett's mid-career were rediscovered on "A Multitude of Angels". I stubbornly refused to cave in to extensive McCaslin coverage on the back of Bowie's "Blackstar". What I did note with interest is a Slim Gaillard CD of lost tracks but it came at the turn of the year and is better placed in 2017. Finally, "My Brother" - it was a year for brothers and fathers and sons - from Ian Shaw's "The Theory of Joy" was notable for even catching the ear of an enthusiastic Robert Elms. Gregory Porter was, of course, everywhere.

The winner is......well, I don't know but lets go for Greg Ward and 10 Tongues – "Touch My Beloved’s Thought" - on the basis that it was the one which led to positive discussion.

I might as well end this review with the aforementioned Ian Shaw song.

It's more of a meeting of Randy Newman and Marc Cohn than jazz.

And it would have been a top ten hit had it been released in the mid 1970s:

Ian Shaw - My Brother - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKQfrSrfEDU